Trivia

As was done with Captain America in the transition from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) to The Avengers (2012), Spider-Man's costume for this film is tailored to resemble his original costume from the comic books, when the character was first introduced. After The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) was criticized by fans for its inaccurate costume, the wardrobe for this film includes the original color patterns for Spidey's hands and feet and the large white eyepieces (which have not been done in any major motion picture about Spider-Man.)

Shailene Woodley was cast as Mary-Jane Watson, and even filmed scenes. But her role was cut from the film because the filmmakers felt there were too many characters and wanted to streamline the series.

Felicity Jones's role was significantly cut down due to time constraints. In an interview, Jones stated that she would be an ally to Harry Osborn/Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) and at one point, even let it slip that she was playing "the Goblin's girlfriend". Though a small scene showing her alliance to Harry was in the final cut, scenes that implied that there were romantic feelings between the two characters were cut from the film.

The humorously hateful news boss J. Jonah Jameson, one of the most iconic characters in Spider-Man's mythos, was never mentioned in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). In this sequel he is spoken of frequently but never appears. The producers claimed they could not find an actor to measure up to J.K. Simmons' legendary portrayal of this character in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. Stan Lee, the writer who came up with the idea for these characters and makes cameo appearances in all the films, has often said he would volunteer to play Jameson if he (Lee) were 30 or 40 years younger.

The future of The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was widely reported to be incredibly confusing following this films release. In the build up of the film and indeed the few months after its release, it was confirmed that it would be followed by The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and a Sinister Six spin-off film, with Venom and an untitled female super heroine films as well as The Amazing Spider-Man 4 also confirmed to be in the works. However, in August Sony announced that The Sinister Six would take the place of The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and that the third in the trilogy would be pushed back to an unspecified date in 2018. Then, during a hack into Sony's email, it was revealed with much media coverage that Sony had approached Marvel Studios with a deal to share the rights of the franchise of which Marvel refused. During this period of time, it was also revealed that Sony wished to fire Andrew Garfield due to his speaking out of the production studio and refusal to meet them for company events. After a lengthy silence, Sony and Marvel revealed on 9 February 2015 they would work together to produce a new Spider-Man series (set in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe") and that The Amazing Spider-Man franchise was canceled.

Several lines featured in the trailers do not appear in the film, including Peter saying "You know what I love about being Spider-Man? Everything." and Harry telling Peter "Oscorp has got you under surveillance."

When this Sony (Columbia) film was shown in theaters, a mid-credits teaser for Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), produced by 20th Century Fox, was included. Director Marc Webb violated a contract with Fox to make a film for them after The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) in order to return to Sony for this franchise; thus Sony had to agree to promote Fox's X-Men movie for free. The scene, which was not included in the video release, is unusual for a mid-credits teaser, in that it is actual footage from the film it is promoting (the scene in Vietnam with Stryker/Mystique).

When Peter interrupts Gwen on her way to her final interview for Oxford, upon realising where they are, Peter's rambling to the receptionist was improvised several times by Andrew Garfield, and the producers and director chose their favourite version from among all the takes that were recorded.

When Spider-Man swings and maneuvers through a dark alley, a brief shot of a yellow pair of pants with a red stripe on them can be seen hanging from a clothesline. This is the costume of comic book villain Shocker.

When the reporter is interviewing two bystanders after Spider-Man's first battle with Electro, they speculate that Spider-Man defeated him by wearing a rubber/neoprene suit, which is how Spider-Man first defeated Electro in the comic book.

When Harry accesses his father's archive you can see the file names Ravencroft, Dr.Connors, Dr.Morbius, and Venom Storage 7U. Ravencroft is the asylum seen later in this film, Dr. Curt Connors is the Lizard from The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Dr. Michael Morbius is a Spider-Man villain with vampire-like attributes, and Venom is Spider-man's demented lookalike whose story was filmed in Spider-Man 3 (2007). All these villains were intended to join the "Sinister Six" organization in the ultimately-cancelled third installment of this reboot.

Marc Webb had a two-picture contract with Twentieth Century Fox, which he partially fulfilled by directing 500 Days of Summer (2009). The second feature would have conflicted with his schedule for directing this film. To be released from that obligation long enough to shoot this film, Webb had to agree to extend that contract to three pictures.

On a press tour, Andrew Garfield opened up to his views on the cancelled and controversy of this series. When asked how he felt no longer being Spider-Man he replied: 'Well, nothing, because I was never Spider-Man. Because Spider-Man's a fictional character. He's not real. You know what's funny, to give you the vulnerable answer, I thought I was going to be Spider-Man, you know? I went into it going...ego shit came in. It's like, "Okay, here it is. I'm fucking Spider-Man. I fucking made it." All that shit. I didn't actually make it. I was never Spider-Man. I was the actor that I am. The person that I am. Struggling with trying to match up with something that I'd elevated so high in my mind. Elevated beyond what I could attain, what I could achieve. The great thing is, that's what Peter Parker was doing as well. Peter Parker created this symbol that he couldn't live up to. It was never enough. He never felt enough, and I never felt enough. And I wanted to...not to say that I needed to rescue those films, but I couldn't make them as deep and soulful and...life-giving as I could ever dream. And I'm never gonna be able to do that, with any film. It was especially difficult in that situation because...well, just because. And it was especially important because that character has always meant so much to me...'He also revealed that he consistently pushed on Sony to crossover Spider-Man with the MCU.

In a flashback sequence, Peter is seen speaking to Captain Stacy (Gwen's Father) as he is dying. In this flashback, Peter speaks to him unmasked, and he tells Peter to "keep Gwen out of it (his life as a superhero)". In the original comic book issue, Captain Stacy speaks to Peter while he is still wearing his mask. He says "Take care of her boy", implying he knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man all along.

For the scene where Peter tries to change out of his Spidey costume before Aunt May enters, the shot where the boot hits the remote control (unlocking the door) was attempted several times but never worked out right. As a result, the crew decided to do it digitally.

When Peter offers to accompany Gwen to England, he says he might catch Jack the Ripper. This was the premise of a story written for the never-produced 6th season of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994) cartoon.

Paul Giamatti loved the Russian accent he used for Aleksei Sytsevich: "He's a Russian mobster. Russians are always good villains. My accent is pretty hammy. It seemed to me like an opportunity to be as over-the-top hammy as possible. It was really fun."

It was originally planned for this film to have two direct sequels, The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 4 respectively, but Sony opted for a reboot alongside Marvel Studios instead, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Spider-Man interacting with Captain America, Thor, etcetera.

Director Marc Webb chose to shoot on 35mm film instead of the digital Red Epic cameras the original was shot with. While it is relatively common for franchise films to shoot on film and transition to digital for sequels as digital cinematography and 3D has become more commonplace (e.g. Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), Skyfall (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)) this is a rare example of a franchise switching to film after being shot on digital. Although cinematographer Dan Mindel, a proponent on shooting on film, thought he would have to convince Webb to shoot this way, he was actually interviewed specifically because Webb wanted to shoot on film, and with Mindel's preferred anamorphic lenses, instead of the spherical ones the original film used. Webb subsequently included in his contracts a rider that requires any feature he directs to be shot on film.

The first major Hollywood production since Away We Go (2009) to utilize extensive green filmmaking initiatives to reduce CO2 emission. Instances include: Mark Friedberg and his production team mostly built sets from 49 tons of salvaged and donated material; Effects like smoke and snow are water-based and bio-degradable. Most of the clothing material and textiles used in the film were either donated or salvaged and were cleaned with detergent and cold water. Subtle eco-friendly messages were placed throughout, notably the wind-power project that Spider-Man fixes for Jorge. It is the first film to gain Sony's own "A Greener World" label at the end credits.

When James Cameron tried to make a Spider-Man movie in the 1990s, he was going to make Electro the main villain. But his version of Electro was going to be totally different from the comics. Instead of Electro being Max Dillon who got his powers from fixing a power line in the middle of a thunderstorm, this version instead would be a billionaire criminal named Carlton Strand who got his powers from getting struck by lightning from an electricity generating device.

In an interview published on his website, James Horner revealed why he didn't return to write the music for this film. He didn't like how it turned out compared to the first one and he called the movie "terrible" and "dreadful". He was ultimately replaced by Hans Zimmer.

The soundtrack song Electro Mix by Alvin Risk and Hans Zimmer is heard briefly in the film, when Electro comes to regard Spider-man as an enemy. Its rhythm and meter are very to similar to the classic Dr. Seuss epic poem for children, Green Eggs & Ham. The bit which is heard in the movie is particularly reminiscent of the iconic Green Eggs passage which reads: "That Sam-I-Am, that Sam-I-Am, I do not like that Sam-I-Am..."

The name of classic Spider-man villain Dr. Kafka suggests Franz Kafka, who wrote the fable Die Verwandlung (The Transformation, usually called The Metamorphosis in English). This story is about a young man completely transformed into an insect. Peter Parker is a young man partially transformed into an arachnid, so the connection is suitable.

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is the third highest-grossing film in the Philippines of all time with over PHP 443 million (over USD 9.8 million) in box office revenue, behind Iron Man 3 (2013) and The Avengers (2012).

During the act towards the end of the feature, a police car in shot can be seen with the car number '1701', the registration of Star Trek (1966)'s USS Enterprise. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci were writers of the Star Trek (2009) reboot.

The 2012 film and this one, both failed to gross more money at the box office, individually matched up against anyone of Sam Raimi's films. Because of this, the studio decided to cancel the series after only 5 years, opting in favor of rebooting the series for a second time. With the appearance of Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, it is the start of the recently rebooted series.

In the beginning of the movie, Peter Parker struggles with seeing the ghost of Captain Stacy who is played by Denis Leary. Leary starred in Rescue Me (2004) where his character struggles with seeing the ghost of his cousin.

The floor tiles in Donald Menken's office at Oscorp show the same pattern as the carpets in the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining', though only in gray and black instead of orange, red and black.

Was originally titled "Spider-Man: Die Rückkehr des Helden" (Spider-Man: The Return of the Hero) for the German release. However, this caused a negative reaction from fans, as they found the title misleading and not in line with the reboot. Sony Pictures Germany later changed the title to "The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro".

When Peter is getting changed and putting the Spiderman costume in his cupboard the costume colours change to match other Spiderman outfits including Miles Morales (black and red) and Ben Reilly/The Scarlet Spider (Blue chest & red limbs).

According to Stan Lee Peter Parker's favorite colors are red blue green and yellow. Peter was also born in September and would prefer to sit in the back of the classroom in the comics. He also stars that no matter how much Peter is a math genius he is very fond of ELA and is considered to be a very nice person by fellow classmates.

The character of Dr. Kafka is both a nod to the classic Spiderman villain and the early XX century writer Franz Kafka. The term "kafkaesque", derived from his writings, describes a nightmarish, oppressive and slightly devoid of logic situation: just like the one Electro/Max Dillon faces in Oscorp's lab at the hands of Dr. Kafka.

The beginning and end sequences were filmed on [and around] Main Street [West and East] in Rochester, NY. It should be noted that Andrew Garfield was not in Rochester. It is also likely that Paul Giamatti was not in Rochester either. Also, many Rochester buildings are featured throughout the film during Spider-Man's web swinging!

Cameo

Stan Lee: A guest at the graduation who sees Peter in his cap and gown but wearing the Spider-Man mask, says "I think I know that guy!" as well he should since it was he who came up with the idea for the character.

Spoilers

The trivia items below may give away important plot points.

According to the actors, the original Green Goblin vs. Spider-Man fight was longer and more violent, but had to be cut in order to keep the PG-13 rating. Things that were cut include a scene where the Goblin is conscious when Gwen dies and laughs at Peter as he cries over Gwen's body, then Peter almost beats the Goblin to death after Gwen is killed.

Several scenes involving Dane DeHaan were cut due to the disturbing and intense nature of the scenes. These include:

Harry drinking and speeding while the girl he is on a date with begs him to slow down.

Several scenes in which Felicia and Harry bond and romantic feelings between the two are implied.

An extended version of Harry's transformation into the Green Goblin, including his teeth growing and shattering, and his nails growing into claws.

The Green Goblin showing himself to Felicia, who is in the building during the transformation, and sparing her life. In this scene, the Goblin kills Menken, and proceeds to destroy the Oscorp building.

The Goblin cutting the web that Gwen is holding on to, which leads to her death. Alternate versions of Gwen's death also included the Goblin fatally stabbing her, and breaking her neck with his bare hands.

When Spider-Man ties Gwen's hand to the cop car hood with a web and swings away, Gwen yells "Peter!" after him and covers her mouth with her hand. This was a genuine mistake by Emma Stone, who was supposed to say "Spider-Man" instead of "Peter", and covering her mouth at the mistake was the genuine reaction of the actress, not the character. Director Marc Webb called it a happy accident and left it in because it was so well performed that it did not break character.

The final battle between the Green Goblin and Spider-Man was filmed in an actual clock tower where temperatures would reach 115 degrees. Dane DeHaan had to wear prosthetics and make up requiring 3 1/2 hours of application as well as his Goblin costume, which weighed 50 lbs and couldn't be opened without power tools. After DeHaan lost 7 lbs in a single day, the film's medic was so concerned that DeHaan would get heat stroke, that crew members were told to pour buckets of ice on DeHaan's head and down his suit between takes. Unfortunately, this didn't work because his body temperature was so high that the ice would melt and turn into steam before he could feel the cooling effects. Eventually, a tubing system that would pump cold water was installed in the goblin suit so that the cooler temperatures could reach DeHaan's body.

For the deleted scene, 'Peter Meets His Father', Andrew Garfield refused to rehearse the scene beforehand or even see/speak to Campbell Scott in order to generate a genuine emotional response when they first lay eyes on each other.

Shailene Woodley, who filmed scenes as Mary Jane Watson before this character was cut from the film, can be seen briefly near the film's climax. She can be seen from behind during a shot inside a café just as Rhino prepares his attack and after Peter's listened to Gwen's graduation speech.

When Electro is cruelly interrogating Menken with cardiac arrest, Dane DeHaan impulsively started to whistle the Jeopardy! (1984) theme. Producer Matt Tolmach decided this was in character for the maddened Harry and was too good to remove or record over, therefore decided to pay the copyright fee for its use.

Three Spider-Man villains have cameo roles in the movie: a female Oscorp employee named Felicia Hardy, a burglar known as Black Cat who is occasionally a love interest of Spider-Man, Allister Smythe, the Spider Slayer who makes an army of robots for the named purpose and Aleksei Sytsevich becomes The Rhino as shown at the end of the movie.

Two display cases in Oscorp feature a set of metal wings and an exoskeleton holding four arms. These are homages to Spider-Man's antagonists the Vulture (Adrian Toomes) and Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius).

The Green Goblin in the film combines the classic Marvel Comics character (a character who rides on a glider and utilizes an arsenal) and the Marvel "Ultimate" character (mutated into a goblin-like creature through a dose of Spider-Man's blood).

When asked whether or not Gwen Stacy would survive in this film, Marc Webb commented: "There are times where we feel obligated to follow the source material, and there are times where we feel the need to deviate from it, and besides, Emma Stone is a very talented actress, and we like having her around."

The film's portrayal of the Rhino combines the classic Marvel Comics character (Aleksei Sytsevich, a dim-witted criminal) and the Marvel "Ultimate" character (a villain wearing rhino-like military armor).

Following the mixed critical and audience reaction to the film, star Andrew Garfield revealed that the screen-story had undergone major rewrites and restructuring during production. The original script focused more on the relationship between Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker, as well as the evolution of Max Dillon into the psychotic Electro and Harry Osborn's descent into madness. During production at the behest of Sony studios, the story underwent a major overhaul to introduce a number of additional characters from the Spider-Man mythos, including Rhino, Black Cat, Dr. Kafka, with allusions to Mysterio, Vulture, Dr. Octopus, and Kraven the Hunter, among others with the hopes of creating a line of spin-off films. For his part, Garfield himself expressed his own disappointment at the deviation from the original story.

The film's portrayal of Electro combines the classic Marvel Comics character (mild Maxwell Dillon, who acquires superpowers in an accident and goes insane) with the Marvel "Ultimate" character (a leather-clad supervillain).

While the Mary Jane Watson sequences were shot but excluded from the final film, the script establishes Mary Jane as Peter's next door neighbor who has an alcoholic, abusive father, sports a Spider-man tattoo, works as a waitress, and builds motorcycles in her spare time. At one point Peter confronts her father to lay off her. When Gwen is planning to head to London, she gives a piece of dating advice to Mary Jane, telling her to date a nerd.

Max originally lives with his handicapped mother at home and once he returned home as Electro, he noticed that his mother was standing and got paid a hefty compensation by Oscorp. He gets angry and begins using his powers, which is what sets off his confrontation with the police in Times Square.

J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robertson from the Daily Bugle were to appear in the film, but director Marc Webb had difficulty of finding an actor that can better J.K. Simmons' performance in the Sam Raimi Spider-man trilogy. In the script Peter is a student at Empire State University, bringing his first Spider-Man pictures to Jameson, who gives him a tour of the Daily Bugle. Jameson complains that the Internet is killing the newspaper business; later, Spidey and Electro's first fight send them crashing through the Daily Bugle offices and the printing presses.

Peter willingly gives his blood to help Harry. The Goblin suit is explained as something that was secretly built by Richard Parker for the crippled Norman Osborn. When Richard didn't give his blood to Norman, the suit was hidden in Norman's boathouse, only to be eventually found by Harry.

Rather than 7 months, as the time period of the film takes place, it instead plays out in 18 months. The second act of the film jumps one year later after the graduation scene.

Dr. Ratha from The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) was meant to reappear in this movie. Although his final scene in that movie left him in mortal peril, the writers insist that he survived that predicament. But Irrfan Khan was unavailable to reprise the role, so the character Donald Menken was introduced to engineer Harry's dismissal from Oscorp in Ratha's place.

The characters of Rhino and Jorge originally do not appear in the film's story.

Gwen's death plays out similarly as in the finished film but while she's clinging on to her life, she tells Peter to never give up, echoing both an earlier talk she had with Mary Jane and George Stacy's dying words to Peter in the preceding film.

Instead of Peter watching Gwen's graduation video at the end, his father Richard turns up alive, saying that he had been watching over Peter all these years he was pretending to be dead, and convinces him to become Spider-man again. Richard says the film's final line, "With great power comes great responsibility", reintroducing Spidey's catchphrase into the Amazing Spider-man film series.

The emotional performance Andrew Garfield delivered during Gwen's death scene was a genuine emotion due to the fact the two actors hadn't seen each other for a few days prior to the shoot. Producer Matt Tolmach later revealed that Andrew sent a photo text on the day, remarking "I f****** hate you!"

Harry Osborn is actually never called Green Goblin. Max Dillon calls himself Electro after the Times Square scene, and Aleksei Sytsevich isn't called Rhino until the end of the film where he calls himself "The Rhino".

There were several different endings filmed, including one where the Goblin (Dane DeHaan) snaps Gwen's neck with his bare hands. But this was deemed too violent for a PG-13 rating. A version where the Goblin fatally stabs Gwen was also filmed. Ultimately, both were cut and replaced with the version that is seen in the film, which closely resembles the comic book version of the events

Richard Parker's secret lab Roosevelt is based on Track 61 built under the Waldorf Astoria. The track was solely used by the White House to hide the fact the polio-suffering President Franklin D. Roosevelt needed the use of a wheel chair, as acknowledged in the film. This same tunnel was also the basis of the novel/movie The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974).

Aleksei's assumption of The Rhino identity, as well as files in the insane asylum regarding Morbius, Venom, and the Lizard and the tools of the Vulture and Doctor Octopus in Oscorp's laboratory, were meant to lead into the third movie where they are recruited by Gustav Fiers (the man who visited the captive Connors in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and the captive Harry in this movie) to form the Sinister Six. This plan was canceled in favor of taking the cinematic Spider-Man in a totally different direction.

While looking up his father's meaning of Roosevelt, Peter sees an image of the Roosevelt Island Tramway. This was an important item used in Spider-Man (2002), which featured Mary Jane Watson narrowly surviving the same trap that kills Gwen in this movie.

Marc Webb originally was going to change the ending and let Gwen live but had to give credit to stan Lee and directly followed Gwen's death scene. This particular scene became very hard for Andrew Garfield to watch because according to him "it felt so real it hurt me to watch someone I love so dearly - die!"

During the final battle with at the Oscorp power plant, after being knocked down by Electro, Spider-Man looks behind him to his left-directly at a Spider-Man logo painted on the wall. This is seen in at least one other occasion during the scene.